The Naked Monk

Archive for January, 2010

Following on yesterday’s blog, I know that after thirty-five years and counting, mindful reflection has made quite a difference. I don’t give in to automaticity as I once did. I don’t invest myself quite as unquestioningly in comfort and security. That weak little insight about samsara really can fight back against the unstoppable force of habit, like David against Goliath.

Trouble is, a single slingshot pebble won’t do it. Each moment arrives with a new giant to conquer, and staying cool and aiming straight depends on taking one moment at a time. When I remember to do that, I’m saner. When it slips out of mind, I find myself acting like an idiot. Well actually, I don’t find myself at all, that’s the problem. I dig myself into a bit of a hole before I realise I’m up to my neck. Then I wake up; and of course I stop—for a while.

Ideas are so great, aren’t they—like the idea of mindfulness? So linear and tidy and elegant. Nothing like reality.

My book The Novice got a great review yesterday. I was happy not just because the reviewer liked it, but because he liked it in just the way I wanted readers to. He got the point, from beginning to end, and appreciated the work I put into it. So for a while I went around grinning like the Cheshire cat, particularly so because the week before, expecting a promised big review, I was let down. It turned out not to be a review at all but a listing—one book among many; yawn! Read the rest of this entry »

I don’t know how I keep up with all I do, but I do know it’s only a fraction of what I have to do. Writing books, promoting them through social networking sites, interviews and lectures, maintaining this blog and my websites, preparing mindful reflection workshops, teaching them, writing homework and answering email—this all adds up to a forty-hour week, easy. As you might imagine, my day-job really gets in the way (by the way, it’s building computers and websites). Unfortunately—or fortunately as sensible people like to remind me—it pays the bills. Read the rest of this entry »

I learned today that I’ve been maligned. I have a computer business and work with the general public, so it’s an occupational hazard. Lord knows you can’t please everyone. It turns out that I did a job for a lady two years ago and something subsequently went wrong. Of course, that’s quite possible. I’m often accused of being a perfectionist, but I’m not perfect and neither’s my work. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s over three months since my memoir The Novice was published, and that time has been an emotional roller-coaster. After fifteen years imagining the book and another ten writing it, I came to think of it as the labour of a lifetime. Imagine my hopes and expectations. Read the rest of this entry »